The big story

Three years ago, Pistons president Joe Dumars was in the midst of a slump. Coming off a year in which he traded away franchise cornerstone Chauncey Billups for the disaster that was the Allen Iverson project, Dumars dug himself deeper with two iffy signings, spending a combined $90 million on free agents Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. The Pistons also fired coach Michael Curry and hired John Kuester. More disaster ensued, as the Pistons went 82-148 over the next three seasons.

When Dumars shuttled Gordon off to the Bobcats this offseason, then, it represented a symbolic turning of the page from that summer’s mistakes. Indeed, the end of the Gordon era was cause for celebration in Detroit. That’s because the Pistons now find themselves with a roster chock-full of promising young players, and a coach, Lawrence Frank, who is doing a good job of molding them. Detroit started last season 4-20, but went 21-21 from there.

The biggest cause for excitement is center Greg Monroe, who took an impressive leap in his second year, with averages of 15.4 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Scouts liked his ability to play in the high post when he was coming out of Georgetown, but he has shown some ability in the low post, too. Monroe is still a work in progress, but he is smooth and intelligent, and it’s clear he is going to take another step up this year. Defensively, he has a long way to go, and it is on that end where he looks more like a power forward than a center. And that’s where things get more interesting.

The Pistons wound up with one of the most intriguing and maddening prospects in June’s draft, taking a chance on 6-10 center Andre Drummond with the ninth pick overall. Last year, Drummond was a candidate to be the top pick, but as things unraveled at Connecticut, he looked at times to be uninterested and unmotivated. But when he looked good, he looked like a potentially dominant big man. He needs work, and is only 19, but Pistons fans already have visions of a Monroe-Drummond front line dancing in their heads. Compared with the Villanueva-Gordon nightmare, that’s progress.

Keep an eye on ...

Pretty much the entirety of Detroit’s bench is going to be an experiment for Frank this year, and the Pistons are hoping to unearth a worthwhile nugget hiding there, much like current sixth man Jonas Jerebko proved to be in 2009-10.

The candidates are iffy. Lanky 6-11 forward Austin Daye showed some promise, but had a terrible stint playing in Europe during the lockout and came back lacking in confidence; he shot just 32.2 percent from the field and 21.0 percent from the 3-point line. Detroit is bringing in four rookies, including Ukrainian center Slava Kravstov, whose sheer size (6-11, 247 pounds) should make him an asset, especially if Drummond is not ready to offer up quality big-man minutes right away.

The other three rookies are former Duke forward Kyle Singler, who spent last season playing in Spain, forward Khris Middleton and guard Kim English. Most likely, the most useful player of the lot will be English, whose shooting as a senior at Missouri last year was off-the-charts good (52.1 percent from the field, 45.9 percent from the 3-point line). English may not be able to do all that much on the floor, but if he can shoot as well as he did in college, he doesn’t need to do anything else—the Pistons ranked 26th in 3-pointers attempted and made last year.

Strategy Session

Point guard Brandon Knight showed promise as a rookie starter last season, averaging 12.8 points per game, but Frank surely knows he has a problem on his hands here. The Pistons have already invested heavily in Rodney Stuckey, who moved to shooting guard last year after it became clear he did not have the skill or athletic ability to be a starting point guard in the NBA. Now, the Pistons have two starting guards who are more 2s than they are 1s and, for an offense that should be running through Monroe, something’s got to give.

The Pistons ranked 28th in assists last year, which was partly due to their plodding pace, but also an indication that they just don’t have playmakers. According to Synergy Sports, Detroit also ranked 28th in points per possession, and was one of the worst halfcourt teams in the league. Knight was very good as a spot-up shooter, but that was the biggest positive in his game. He is young and has room to grow, of course, but Synergy ranked him as an average pick-and-roll point guard and below average in transition. Frank will have to keep a close watch on whether Knight can get better as a playmaker.

Outside view (from an Eastern Conference scout): “They finished strong at the end of last year, and that has to give them some hope. The thing is, they were so bad offensively that you have to point to Lawrence Frank’s defense for the way they were able to turn it around. They were a much better defensive team late in the year than they were in the beginning, and they seemed to start to get what Frank had been preaching. That is probably the thing they need to build on most. If they can continue to play defense consistently, they should be around .500.”

Inside view (from forward Tayshaun Prince): “With this team, starting in December, I think 4-20 looked pretty bad last year. I think we have been down that same path with the young guys we had and the guys we have. We have a lot of young guys, but that isn’t an excuse. We are going to have to really … get after it. We are going to have to really instill how we are going to play. We need to have everybody come in with the right mindset from the beginning.”

Our view: There is a lot more to like in Detroit than we have seen since that fateful Iverson-Billups swap. But there are still some gaping holes, starting with the need for Knight to develop into a better overall point guard. Undersized power forward Jason Maxiell probably shouldn’t be a starter; he’s much better suited for the bench. And Tayshaun Prince is 32 and saw his shooting (42.1 percent from the field) fall off the shelf last year. The possibility of developing a Drummond-Monroe paint presence is enticing, but Drummond is a long way from being a starter in the NBA and, even if he were ready, the rest of the roster needs some tweaking. For this year, at least, the playoffs are out of reach.

Projected rotation

The starting five has weak spots and the bench includes some head-scratching players, so how Frank—who glued Villanueva to the bench last year and could do the same with trade acquisition Corey Maggette—sets up his rotation is very much a mystery.